What is the literary value of hoku

The traditional Japanese poetic form of hokku has found quite a few adherents in Europe and America. Perhaps there are even more authors working in this genre outside of Japan than in the Land of the Rising Sun itself. The popularity of hokku among representatives of other cultures has very good reasons.

What is hoku?

The hoku form seems simple and straightforward. This is a poem consisting of only three lines. The first and third lines in the European tradition are written by a five-syllable, the middle line consists of seven syllables. In literary criticism, it is believed that hoku comes from a more complex poetic form - the tank, and is an initial and simpler verse. The earliest examples of hoku date back to the 16th century. These were mostly comic poems. The most famous authors of this period are Yamazaki Sokan and Arakida Moritake.

Matsuo Basho, who wrote mainly landscape lyrics, made a serious hoku genre. In subsequent eras, Japanese poets wrote hockey of very different contents. They widely used folk poetry, historical and literary sources. Modern European hoku are also extremely diverse in terms of both plot and artistic methods, but the most interesting authors strive to preserve the features inherent in traditional Japanese poetry.

Conciseness

One of the main advantages of hoku is brevity. In three lines, a talented author is able to show a picture from nature, as prescribed by Japanese tradition, and show his attitude to the world, while the last line represents a conclusion, sometimes paradoxical, from what was said in the first two. A paradoxical conclusion can both clarify the picture drawn in the first two lines and create a comic effect. The author’s task is to correctly use this technique so that an irreconcilable conflict of meanings does not turn out.

Accuracy

Japanese culture is contemplative in nature, and this feature is reflected in hoku. The author of the classic hokku draws a momentary picture, gives a sort of slice of time. In the first two lines, he talks about what is happening here and now, right before his eyes. In the third line, he usually gives a general description of the phenomenon.